Abkhazia to test parliamentary candidates on Abkhaz, with a softer rule for non-Abkhaz citizens
Viacheslav Chirikba: 'We cannot yet expect our citizens of other nationalities to speak Abkhaz freely'
SUKHUM / AQW'A — Candidates for parliament in Abkhazia will be tested on their knowledge of the Abkhaz and Russian languages, under amendments passed by the People's Assembly on 24 July at their second and final reading. The measure introduces a language requirement for anyone standing for a seat, but pairs it with a differentiated approach that would set an easier path, and a delay, for citizens who are not ethnically Abkhaz.
The differentiated approach is a presidential initiative, and the deputy Inar Sadzba has argued that it deserves support. In his account, it lets the state avoid acting rashly, since time is needed to build up a system for assessing how well a person knows the language and to develop a proper method for doing so. People live in different environments, he noted, and not everyone is able to hear Abkhaz spoken around them; not even all Abkhaz have that opportunity, he added frankly. For that reason the gradations could be evolutionary, approaching the question in stages and allowing some time for the assessment systems and the methodology to be developed. Preparing to put the rule into effect has to be done thoroughly, he said, with objective factors taken into account. For ethnic Abkhaz, however, Sadzba said there should be no deferral. The country cannot simply say that everyone must know the language and everyone must sit the test, he argued, but where Abkhaz by nationality are concerned he did not think anyone would dispute the requirement, even as there were aspects that could not be left out of account.
The case for treating non-Abkhaz citizens differently has also been made by Vyacheslav Chirikba, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies and International Relations of the Abkhazian National Academy of Sciences. When the level of a candidate's Abkhaz is being determined, he said, an allowance has to be made for those who are not ethnically Abkhaz, and doing so calls for an approved scale of proficiency levels and a testing programme.
Chirikba said he had drawn up a methodological handbook for assessing knowledge of Abkhaz and presented it to the president. It sets out five levels of language competence: elementary, basic, satisfactory, fluent and professional. In his view, entry into the corps of deputies should require the fluent level or the professional one. His one qualification, he said, would be to make an allowance for Abkhaz and non-Abkhaz alike, because Abkhazia is not yet in a position to expect its citizens of other nationalities to speak Abkhaz freely. The conditions for that have not been created: neither good schools nor courses and the like. He also called for a language certification centre to be set up, where any citizen could check their own command of Abkhaz.